In one of my previous columns, I promised to describe in more detail the days and weeks immediately following my stem cell transplant. I have read many accounts in The Beacon of this critical period in the transplant process. Everyone has to endure the ups and downs of recovery and the drawn-out wait for the bone marrow to start producing all the blood cells that we need. It seems that this time is different for every multiple myeloma patient.

I …

In my pre-myeloma days, I didn't think much about hair or hats. I was surprised to find out how much this changed in the months during and after my stem cell transplant.

My previously bushy hair had become pretty thin before the transplant due to the treatment with cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), which I was given to ‘encourage’ the stem cells to leave the marrow so they could be collected from my blood.

Perhaps, given this hair thinning, I ought to have …

I guess that my being diagnosed with multiple myeloma was bound to bring many un­expected things along with it. In the 19 months since my diagnosis, many things have happened to me, and to my husband Graham, that we certainly did not expect. Of course, most of them have been medically related.

Alongside all these medical challenges, other un­expected experiences have come our way.

Sometimes, when I take time to reflect, I can see that some of these un­expected …

In September 2015, after three months of induction with Revlimid (lena­lidomide), Velcade (bortezomib), and dexamethasone (Decadron), my IgA heavy chain M-spike had fallen from 6.5 g/dL (65 g/L) to zero. My doctor felt that the time was right to get onto the next phase of treatment – a stem cell transplant.

I remember being apprehensive, but actually quite excited at the same time, as this procedure seemed to be the door to a real chance …

As I mentioned in my first column last month, I was pretty ill when I was diag­nosed with multiple myeloma in June 2015. Despite nu­mer­ous visits to doctors, physio­ther­a­pists, chiro­prac­tors, and massage thera­pists, it took months for me to be re­ferred to a hematology depart­ment. I know from reading The Beacon that this is far from a unique experience, and many people unfortunately may relate to this experience.

At the time when I discovered that I had multiple myeloma, …

I’m not normally a person for rules, but all that changed in June 2015 when I found myself lying in a hospital bed in Singapore. At age 57, I had just been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and I was in a bit of a sorry state, to put it mildly.

It is hard to recall all the things that seemed to be wrong with me at the time – fever, infections, broken bones, severe backache, a hip that would no …